Insight buy-out battle heats up

Insight Venture Partners topped a $25.50-a-share bid that Quest Software received from an unidentified suitor, intensifying a takeover battle for the software maker, according to a person familiar with matter.

Insight sweetened its Mar 9 offer of $23-a-share for Quest, after the software maker said last week it got a higher offer from a strategic bidder, said the person, who declined to be identified because the process is not public.

Dell was the unnamed bidder, according to a Reuters report last week.

The company employs 3,900 worldwide and 220 people at its Citygate Business Park Mahon Point offices in Cork.

Quest has advanced 43% this year, with a market value of $2.2bn (€1.75bn), after competing bids emerged for the Aliso Viejo, California- based company. Quest’s software helps businesses administer databases and servers, back up information and recover lost data.

Insight is a New York- based venture capital firm specialising in software and internet businesses.

Representatives from Insight and Quest did not respond to requests for comment. David Frink, Dell spokesman, declined to comment.

Dell, the world’s third- largest PC maker, told analysts at a meeting on Jun 13 it plans to use deals to boost revenue from data-centre hardware, software and services by 45% to $27.5bn by fiscal 2016, reducing the company’s reliance on the slow-growing desktop and notebook computer business.

The last time Dell engaged in a public takeover fight was in 2010, when it lost storage company 3Par to Hewlett- Packard, which bought it for $2.35bn, after the 18-day bidding war tripled the company’s market value.

Michael Dell, founder of the Round Rock, Texas- based computer company, told Bloomberg News last year that HP overpaid for 3Par, and he made the right decision in dropping out of the process.